Page:Georges Eekhoud - Escal Vigor, a novel.djvu/283

Rh others. To each man his duty, to each girl her due! Down with laggards! Thy master will wait well enough; an hour, more or less, won't change things much."

He struggled wildly, not without an angry impatience; but they were sturdy-built wenches and grew only the hotter over the business. The crosser he looked the harder they went for him.

"Be bold, girls; go for him you wenches! Can no-one get the great booby to dance?"

In the conflict, they scented the tight-strung maleness of the sap-filled youth, and his breathing, hurried by his exertions, rendered him still more savoury and appetising. They took liberties with him, while affecting to caress him; pressed their hands over his body, catching hold of him anyhow, anywhere, this one seizing an arm and another a leg. One girl made a girdle, and another a necklace for him, of her arms, but he still struggled on bravely, turning and twisting himself about desperately, and would certainly have escaped the outrageous hussies in the end, in spite of all their fierce efforts.

But his flight would have served Claudie's account even less than theirs. The young man's obstinate resistance enlightened her